Last preparations

To Dia's relief, everyone had reconvened at the city gates just fine. The members of the Dusk Daggers looked a tiny bit worse for wear, but other than that, they were as sprightly as ever. Save for some leaves and twigs that adorned everyone's clothes, everyone looked as dandy as ever.

"Great, everyone's nice and safe," said Haber, whose mellowness had clearly taken a small hit in the earlier trek. "Right, uh, were we supposed to be as flashy as possible in our earlier search?"

"I don't recall saying that," Risti replied.

"Nor do I," Dia added. "Why?"

"Well, we thought we were supposed to be drawing attention to us, so we were a bit — how do I put it — obnoxious." Haber cleared his throat. "But we didn't get attacked or anything, so I'm not sure how that falls in your plan."

"Didn't get attacked, huh." Risti ruminated over his words for a moment. "Well, that's totally fine. But did you feel like you were being watched or something?"

"And how does that feeling feel like?" Lucid replied. "Didn't feel anything out of the ordinary for me, at least. In the first place, being able to detect when someone's watching is an ability that may or may not exist, so I wouldn't put much stock in it."

"True," Risti acknowledged. "Well, I suppose we should get some grub first. The night's going to be a very long one. If we're lucky, we might even be able to end it all."

She didn't quite say it out loud, but Dia had seen through her intentions. Risti wasn't hoping for luck to be on their side; rather, she was actually intending to capture the perp on the first night. If Dia wasn't wrong, the only reason why Risti didn't tell the others that was because she didn't want a repeat of what had happened earlier when the Dusk Daggers were splitting roles.

Glory hounds would only be an impediment to actually capturing the culprit.

Dia peered at her with a sideways gaze, assessing Risti as she continued to chat with the other members of the Dusk Daggers. Her words were mostly talking about how they were going to use a process of elimination to eventually uncover the murderer's hideout, but the more she spoke, the more certain Dia was. That said, it would be better if she actually confirmed her hypothesis later, just in case her thoughts were all wrong.

"Welcome back, Your Excellencies." Lucia walked up and bowed to the four of them. "A sumptuous spread has been prepared for everyone here, by way of thanks."

Dia instinctively moved to decline, but the memories of eating rations overwhelmed her mind before she could enunciate those words. By the time she had regained control, Risti was already thanking Lucia for their hospitality, along with the others.

Licking her lips, Dia decided to go with the flow. For some reason, she had the feeling that accepting food here was a bad idea, given the nature of their following expedition. However, that was just her subconscious talking, which had been frightened into absurd levels of caution by Claud's constant warnings and the assassination not too long ago.

As Dia followed them in, she checked that her Pendant of Poison Immunity was still on. That action itself, however, had surprised her. This wasn't the first time she had checked that her anti-poison artefact was on her, but for some reason, she was really taking notice of it.

"Looks like the upcoming search is really getting to me," Dia muttered.

"Hm?" Risti turned to her. "Sorry, didn't catch that."

"No, it's nothing much. Just a bunch of random thoughts dancing around in my head, that's all." Dia patted her pendant as they continued on into one of the many rooms inside the guardhouse. A delectable scent wafted into her nose moments later, and she turned to look at the huge spread of dishes that had been laid out of the table.

"Thank you for the meal," said Lucid.

The others followed his lead, and Lucia chuckled. "It's the least we can do for Your Excellencies. Please, enjoy your meal."

She left the room after bowing. After a short pause, everyone grabbed a seat and started to dig in. Unfortunately, the kinds of utensils provided didn't match the rather luxurious spread of food, and Dia couldn't help but feel some incongruity as she took a few cautious bites.

On hindsight, it should have been obvious that there was no poison, but Dia still let out a small sigh anyway. Mocking herself inwardly, she ladled a bunch of diced potatoes on her plate and turned to the sausages, where the others were fighting a silent and deadly war over. Her fork flashed, and the skirmish above the sausages turned into a full-blown war as everyone competed with each other over meat.

Stabbing through three sausages at once, Dia deposited them on her plate and returned to the battle. Her action had reduced the number of sausages to three, which dropped to two as Haber's fork artfully dodged Lucid's own to spear a sausage.

Knocking aside Lucid's fork, Dia said, "Did you guys notice anything important while you were checking out the area?"

"No," Haber replied. His fork spun rapidly, knocking aside Risti's as it descended onto the last two sausages. Lucid moved to intercept a moment later, and a minor shockwave followed as the two Hulid-lookalikes clashed with their utensils.

That was the cue for Dia and Risti to use mana too, and the two began to fight with glowing forks. Although Risti was no slouch, Dia's hands were too quick for her, and with a triumphant stab, she retrieved one more sausage.

"Come on," Haber said. "There's so many dishes. Why are you guys fighting with me over sausages?"

"The rest are mostly vegetables or meat with bones," Risti replied, her fork flashing out over and over again. Haber's fork turned into blinding silvery arcs, protecting the last sausage from both Lucid and Risti's assault, but under the two's silent cooperation, the silver arcs began to dull.

The same light flashed in the eyes of both accomplices as they abruptly struck out for the last sausage, and a shockwave of blue light followed. The last sausage had been severed into three pieces, with the middle piece making a break for freedom.

Haber's hand flashed out and stabbed through the last piece.

"Darn it."

"It's your fault." Risti rolled her eyes at Lucid. "Ahem. Anyway, I think Dia needs to be a bit more specific. First, did you two spot any signs of human habitation?"

"Uh…" Lucid thought about it for a moment. "Well, there was some tracks within the target area, but we chose to purposely overlook that. In the area we were supposedly scouting, no signs of traps and life were visible."

"Okay. That's good enough."

Silence fell as everyone focused on their food. For some reason, Dia had the feeling that Haber was guarding his sausages really jealously, but other than that, the dinner went on smoothly. It didn't take long before the plates that were once laden with food was empty, and after spending a few minutes to rub their tummies and complain about how Haber got the most sausages, everyone got up.

The Moons were rising, and it was time to work. Stretching her limbs, Dia and the others headed for the door, where Lucia was already waiting for them.

"Your cloaks are here, Your Excellencies," said Lucia. "My shift ends in four hours, but I will brief the incoming officer about the ongoing situation to prevent any issues. Is there anything else you need?"

Risti and Dia glanced at the others, who shook their heads.

"There's nothing I need."

"We're always prepared for anything," Lucid added. "We are a two-star party, after all. Even if there's only two of us actually out and working on this, there's nothing we can't overcome."

Their confidence was infectious, and Dia found her spirits lift from their confidence and professionalism. Even though they probably believed that their search wouldn't come to fruition on the first night, that awareness wasn't going to put a damper on their spirits.

"Really professional." Risti nodded. "Not bad. Maybe your evaluation should be bumped up or something."

"Bumped up?" Haber repeated. "I don't mean to sound condescending, but you're just a one-folder, right? How can you bump up our evaluation?"

"It's rather easy, actually," Risti replied. "Wasn't there an assessment component or something that follows after a task is completed? That's where other people can give you evaluations, so…"

"Ah, I see."

Draping the dark-green cape over her body and hair, Dia unsheathed her sword and did a few practice swings with it. There was some encumbrance, but since she was intending to discard her cloak once she encountered the murderer, it didn't matter.

Checking her equipment one last time, she nodded at the others. The sky outside was dark, and with any luck, even if the murderer was busy looking down from the sky, the four of them wouldn't be spotted. Everyone had their own defences at the ready, if they really did come under assault, but…

Haber pulled on his cloak's hood, covering his blue hair. "Alright, let's go."